Severe Weather on the
Plains to Get an Airing at ConferenceBY VERONICA ROSMANWORLD-HERALD STAFF
WRITER

When National Weather Service forecaster Cathy Zapotocny
started her shift on Oct. 26, 1997, it looked as if an incoming storm would
bring only rain mixed with snow flurries.

By morning, Omaha was buried under 9 inches of snow.
Broken tree limbs blocked streets all over town. More than 300,000 people
were without power.

For Zapotocny, the October 1997 snowstorm proved
to be a good example of the Midlands' unpredictable weather and the challenges
it places on weather forecasters.

"It's amazing how a storm can produce very different
weather across a single state," she said. "And sometimes that can be hard
to predict."

Zapotocny will speak about the challenges of forecasting
winter weather in the Midlands on Saturday in Lincoln during the second
annual Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium. The event, which is free
and open to the public, will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Nebraska
Center for Continuing Education, 33rd and Holdrege Streets.

Also scheduled to speak at the symposium are renowned
storm chaser Chuck Doswell; Mary Ann Cooper, a doctor specializing in lightning
injuries at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Tim Marshall, a meteorologist
and engineer who helps design weather-resistant buildings; and Jeff Morrow
of the Weather Channel.

Ken Dewey, the symposium organizer and a member of
the High Plains Climate Center, said he picked the speakers for specific
reasons.

Dewey said he hoped Cooper's expertise with lightning
injuries would help people realize that lightning is a serious hazard in
the Midlands, often more dangerous than tornadoes.

"Nebraska hasn't had a tornado fatality in more than
10 years," he said. "But we have people killed from lightning nearly every
year."

Doswell was invited to speak, Dewey said, because
he has been a professional storm chaser for nearly 30 years and is considered
the foremost authority in the field. Doswell, who works for the National
Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., was chasing storms even before
sophisticated technology, Dewey said.

"All he could do 30 years ago was look at a weather
map and guess," Dewey said. "Now he has equipment in his van that tells
him where is the best place to chase."

Despite his interest and expertise, Doswell still
recommends that people leave storm chasing to the professionals, Dewey
said.

"He loves to show people what he's accomplished,"
Dewey said. "But then he reminds people that, 'Boys and girls, you shouldn't
do this at home.'"

The symposium also will include dozens of weather-related
exhibits as well as appearances by several local television weather forecasters,
area storm spotters and weather-related organizations.

Dewey said the event is designed to offer information
that will interest experts as well as amateur weather buffs.

"It's a family event that has everything from the
gee-whiz to the technical," Dewey said. "I want grandma and her 10-year-old
grandson to get as much out of it as anyone else."